California Wildfires: Crews Beginning to Get a Grip on Two Large Blazes, Including One in Yosemite National Park

Published Jul 31 2014 02:10 PM EDT

weather.com

California firefighters are making progress on a pair of fast-moving California wildfires that have already claimed nearly two dozen homes.

About half of the homes in the path of the El Portal fire have been dropped from evacuation orders as the inferno burns in Yosemite National Park. The wildfire has burned more than 3,500 acres of land and is 34 percent contained. Residents of Old El Portal returned home Tuesday, but about 45 homes in the Foresta community remain evacuated.

On Wednesday, fire crews strengthened old containment lines to keep the Yosemite blaze from reaching a grove of treasured giant sequoia trees. The fire was about 10 miles from Merced Grove, the site of the trees, but flames could reach the grove if the fire becomes extremely active, park spokesman Scott Gediman said.

Merced Grove is among three stands of giant sequoias in the park. The towering trees grow only on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada and are among the largest and oldest living things on Earth. They can live longer than 3,000 years and resist fire.

With the exception of some smoke in Yosemite valley, the park itself was largely unaffected by the fire and remained open, Gediman said.

The fire has destroyed a home and a duplex and burned through more than 5 square miles since it began on Saturday.

Fire crews also were battling a blaze in Sierra National Forest about 60 miles northeast of Fresno that grew substantially late Tuesday and had spread across nearly 9 square miles. It was threatening about 20 homes, though they were not under mandatory evacuation orders, said Anne Grandy, a spokeswoman for the park.

Several campgrounds and cabins were evacuated and closed, the U.S. Forest Service said in a statement.

Crews were wrapping up work on another fire about 100 miles northwest of the Yosemite blaze in the Sierra Nevada foothills east of Sacramento.

The fire was 95 percent contained after charring more than 6 1/2 square miles and destroying 19 homes and 47 outbuildings. Mop-up operations were expected to last several days.

More than 400 homes were evacuated at one point, but all the residents have been allowed to return.

There could be some much-needed rainfall in the coming days, but it will come with other risks to firefighters. According to weather.com senior meteorologist Jon Erdman, the forecast probably won't help crews contain the California wildfires.

"High temperatures in Yosemite Valley will once again top out in the 90s each afternoon this week," he said. "Isolated afternoon thunderstorms Wednesday may produce strong, erratic winds near the fire, with little rainfall. Furthermore, lightning strikes may initiate new fires."

Both major fires come on the heels of the announcement of the full containment of the Bully Fire, which scorched more than 12,500 acres of Shasta County, California, land over a 15 day period. Earlier this year, at least 10 wildfires broke out in the San Diego area, burning at least 47 homes along with businesses and an apartment complex.